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@RBMonte @MCCCANM @JoshuaLisec Who are you quoting?

@MCCCANM @JoshuaLisec “He has a savior complex — as if marrying a single mom makes him feel heroic or superior.”

Usual frame: Step dad Reframe: Dad who steps up

@SteveNomadic Your first mistake was expecting empathy on E Ms social media

Wild how most of the replies: 1) assume I’m talking about myself 2) offer some shitty take about how they personally have/had it worse in their industry. It’s an observation. It’s called having empathy. NK pilots can be dealing with some tough times AND so can you.

@MCCCANM What do you say to the rumors that am ATC announcement was made about the individual that climbed the fence?

It would be nearly impossible to see someone as you start the takeoff roll. They are likely more than a mile away, in the dark, with runway lights designed to not be so bright as to ruin night vision. Best case is you see them at the last second. No way you’ll be able to stop.

@BuzzPatterson Some really delusional thoughts going on here. The airlines know there's almost zero competition on certain routes, and almost no one is not buying a ticket because of who they think is going to be in the seat. Most click Purchase based on the $, not who is in the seat.

FLYING & DEI: IT KILLS As some of you know, in addition to my career as an Air Force pilot I was also a commercial pilot for Delta Air Lines. Twenty years in the USAF and 16 at Delta. Throughout, I was impressed with my fellow pilots whether military or commercial. My peers were solid, the training was exemplary, and the maintenance on our aircraft was the best. I was blessed to safely operate aircraft into and out of 70 countries over 35 years and over 10,000 hours of flying time.  However, as our society evolves, for better or worse, many industries continue to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace above and beyond operations that are founded solidly in safe and efficient operations. Among the several industries that have taken this on in the face of the risks is the U.S. airline industry at the direct expense of the commercial flying public. It has indeed introduced questions and concerns about the safety and competence of the flying industry. One of the most recent incidents occurred in January 2024, when a United Airlines flight with a diversity “new hire” bent metal on a landing on their training flight. “Bent metal” like taking it out of service. That’s not cheap for United nor is it an endorsement for future paying United passengers. The incident led to an investigation into the company’s hiring practices and questions about the hiring practices and training standards for pilots who are less qualified than others. It was one of many instances that have occurred recently where the potential risks of prioritizing diversity over experience and competence have been highlighted.  Another issue that has recently been brought to light is the potential for discrimination in the hiring process. When I was leaving the Air Force and interviewing with the various airline companies, I was surrounded by experienced pilots from all walks of life. But they had decades of experience and they’d been through the shit. Mostly military but not all. Today, when you walk to your gate, you’re possibly getting a pilot, a flight attendant, or a mechanic who was hired based solely on diversity, equity, or inclusion. Airlines are setting diversity hires above qualifications at your expense.  When you board your aircraft with a ticket you’ve paid dearly for, what are you looking for in your aviation experience? I know when I board one now with my family, I know exactly what I’m looking for. Experience and competency. In response to the concerns that DEI initiatives are essential for promoting a diverse and inclusive workspace, I understand that. However, I firmly believe that safety should always be our primary concern and goal. Any and every attempt to ignore that should be eliminated and squashed forever. Otherwise, we’re going to start seeing planes fall out of the sky and innocent people die. As a member of the flying public, what do you think?

@CynicalPublius "Losers and suckers." Some commander in chief, maybe.

Somehow there is an X debate going on right now about VA disability ratings. I'm hearing some idiots saying if it's not from a combat wound, you should not get a disability rating. To which I rebut with the following; 20+ years of: -12 mile ruck marches. -5k/10k/10 mile/every other distance runs. -Parachute landing falls. -Obstacle and confidence courses. -Vehicle rollovers. -Helicopter hard landings. -Heat injuries/cold injuries. -Anthrax shots, COVID shots, all other kinds of shots. -"Here, take some Motrin, you'll be fine." -Weeks/Months/Years of high stress and little sleep. -Extended periods of poor nutrition. -Weird diseases you can only get in places like Afghanistan or Korea. -Burn pits. -All other manner of training injuries. -Never telling anybody you are injured because if you do they might pull you from that leadership position you fought so hard to earn. You do all that for 20+ years, your body will be torn up, I promise. The US military is a physically demanding place, no matter what your branch of service or MOS. Training accidents happen routinely. People die in peacetime accidents, routinely. The idea that a VA disability rating should only come from something that also earns a Purple Heart is nonsense. If anything, our warriors are consistently denied VA disability ratings for what are clearly service-connected ailments.

@LordHaoshu @Koperkan @hr_unhinged If the account followed Poe's Law this wouldn't happen

@Koperkan @hr_unhinged You do know that this is a satire account?

Showing up 15 minutes early for an interview is basically trespassing. Our receptionist notified me that a UX designer was waiting in the lobby at 9:45 a.m. for a 10:00 a.m. slot. I walked out and asked why he was trying to steal company time before he was even on the official payroll. He said he just wanted to account for traffic and make a solid first impression. I told him that aggressive punctuality indicates a fundamental inability to accurately estimate project timelines. He asked if he should go wait in his car until the exact minute. I said no, the damage to his cultural fit score was already permanently done. I made him sit facing the lobby wall until exactly 10:00 a.m. so he could think about his schedule. Then I canceled the interview entirely because his anxious energy was too disruptive.

@Tkb24x2 @MCCCANM GAAP is a lie

@MCCCANM And it's not because their fucked financially (if they aren't lying)

No idea what’s going on, but Delta might end up actually canceling more flights than Spirit today. It’s not weather or ATC. A mystery…

@RadioFreeTom Are you kidding? Determining those would inevitably put loyalty in conflict with competence. Which, we know how that would turn out

The fact that neither the Chairman nor the SECDEF could explain what they think Iran's center of gravity is in this war tells you why we still need War Colleges.

@MCCCANM Was there an announcement from Capt to stay seated?

Panic is the enemy. It can spread in any group, but in an airplane it will spread fast & people will start acting on it. This, in turn, can lead to a worse outcome than having done nothing at all. If it’s not on fire, staying inside the jet is way better than going down slides.

@airmainengineer Was there a FD announcement to stay seated?

NTSB issued report about United Flight 1382 (Feb 2, 2025) Incident: Airbus A319 right engine failed (HPC blade fracture from high-cycle fatigue) during takeoff roll at Houston IAH. Crew rejected takeoff safely. No injuries, minimal damage. Evacuation Chaos: Passengers in the rear panicked, ignored crew, grabbed bags, and pressured attendants. Aft crew initiated uncommanded evacuation without alarm or flight deck coordination. Issues: Left engine still running → aft slide (2L) twisted/deflated from jet blast. Only 3 passengers evacuated via that slide before it failed. Forward slides worked normally. Probable Cause: Cabin crew failed to activate evacuation alarm and coordinate with flight crew, leading to evacuation with an engine running. Contributing: Passenger noncompliance and panic.

@elonmusk For whom?

Troubling

@JeremyBearemy2 @MCCCANM @DMKANDOIT Read the passenger Bill of Rights. There's exceptions to the three hour rule. You don't like the bill? You know who to call... Just remember how much your vote matters next to A4As.

@MCCCANM @DMKANDOIT So if this guy is correct and they have been trapped for 4 hours, how does that work? They are allowed to break the law as long as they want and essentially detain people both against their will and against the law? Rules for thee and not for me?

This guy is in a lot of legal trouble. If the slide blew (I don’t think it did) I hope Delta sues him, too. You hear the Captain on the PA system. The pilots are not going to come out when people start acting this way. We are now locked down & assume there may be other threats; this could be a coordinated distraction to take control of the cockpit. Any kind of disruption like this is taken very seriously & we default to safety mode. The police are going to meet the jet. Now, here is what you might need to know… If the Flight Attendants ask for help, get up & help them. They are trained to defuse these situations as much as possible, but can only do so much. When you are seated, the Flight Attendants will look around for passengers that might be able to help if things get physical. Do NOT do this on your own initiative…wait for the FAs to ask, then follow their instructions. They know what equipment is on the jet & where to put these people. Our security departments spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff & giving us training for it. As much as I’d love to come storming out of the cockpit with the crash axe in hand, the cockpit door will not be opened in these circumstances.

@tommyboy5311 @MCCCANM @DMKANDOIT The airline will be fined. And, depending on other factors, customers may receive compensation.

@MCCCANM @DMKANDOIT The law? So the pilot can be arrested for this violation?

@warsawwhite @MCCCANM @CaptBob_Nomadic The FAA developed the passenger Bill of Rights. Don't like the rights? Think they need to improve? You know who to call... Just remember how much the A4As vote matters

@MCCCANM @CaptBob_Nomadic To me it’s mad how once you’re past airport security, it’s like a hostage situation. You have no rights and you have to accept airlines treating you like this potentially for hours if delayed on tarmac

@BobLonsberry "Thus, confirmation bias makes attempts at reasoned argument exhausting because it produces arguments and theories that are non-falsifiable. It is the nature of confirmation bias itself to dismiss all contradictory evidence as irrelevant…" T Nichols, The Death of Expertise

THE POPE IS WRONG The pope is wrong. I'm not talking about the pissing match between him and Trump, an embarrassment arising from two men with problem egos. I'm talking about the gospel. He's wrong about that. On Palm Sunday, presiding at the altar, dressed in his vestments and regalia, standing above the body and blood of Christ, proclaiming as the bishop of Rome the gospel, he said, "Jesus does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war -- but rejects them." Let that sink in. "Jesus does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war -- but rejects them." That is preposterous, and conflicts directly with the Bible, the teachings and history of his own Roman Catholic Church, and the very nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Bible, there are six separates Psalms written as prayers by David while he was waging war. In these prayers he asked God to bless his efforts and defeat his enemies. Does the pope want us to believe that the Lord ignored those prayers and rejected David as he offered them? Should those Psalms be removed from the Bible canonized by his own church four times over more than a thousand years? What about Jehoshaphat, Elisha, Joshua and Hezekiah -- as well as the entire tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh -- who all while waging war prayed fervently to God to deliver them and subdue their enemies? God ignored them, too, and rejected them? That's a little hard to swallow given that each one of them was blessed with success in battle and rejoicingly thanked the Lord for it. That's what the Bible says. As far as the doctrinally authoritative Catechism of the Catholic Church, the church declares the principle of "just war" -- based on the teachings of saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas -- and Catholic tradition specifically calls on those waging war to ask for victory in justice and protection for Catholic troops. And what of the Catholic chaplains in our Armed Forces? Should they tell young men and women waging war in their country's service that their prayers are pointless, as they will be ignored and rejected by their Savior? Isn't that what the Holy Father said? Finally, there is the matter of Constantine as he prepared for the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. A pagan who was about to wage war, he asked God to bless him with victory. At that point, he saw a cross in the sky and words that told him to march under its banner. That led to his conversion, the embrace of Christianity by the Roman Empire, the Nicaean Creed, and the official governmental sponsorship that made the Catholic Church one of the most powerful and wealthy institutions in the western world. Is the pope saying that the Lord turned a deaf ear to Constantine? Was that all a mistake or misunderstanding? Should we still be worshipping the sun god? Of course not. But this isn't about history or doctrine, soldiers or even the Bible. It's about Jesus Christ. "Jesus does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war -- but rejects them." Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus listens to everyone's prayers, and Jesus rejects no one. The Lord loves us all, no matter who we are, no matter what we have done, no matter how far we have fallen. God loves us all, and waits like the adoring Heavenly Father he is for us to reach out to him. He rejoices when we pray, he embraces us when we pray, he pours out his blessings upon us when we pray. Even if we are waging war. Even if we are in the depths of sin. Maybe especially if we are in the depths of sin. "The Lord is near to all who call upon him," David said. And that is true, no matter what Leo said. God always loves us, God is always there for us, God will always hear our prayers. It's unfortunate the vicar of Christ seems confused on that point.

@RadioFreeTom "a pile of stars and eagles"? Magical thinking.

Trump is threatening genocide, and implying the use of nuclear weapons. If he gives anything like this order, Rubio should resign and senior military commanders should resign rather than carry it out. theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/…

@yoyofakowee @shanaka86 Oh goody, someone else who thinks this "clown show" will ever end (willingly). Bless your heart.

General Russel L. Honoré (Retired). He spelled it out on TV yesterday. Because he knows people and knows what is going on. Hegseth will not tolerate debate. Debate which has been part of the system all along. Hegseth does not believe in playing Devil's Advocate. If you QUESTION ANYTHING, you are fired. Four Star Generals are not permitted to ask questions. Or review engagements with a critical eye, so they can improve. Who in history also did this? Hitler. Historians are unanimous in their review of Hitler, if he had just listened to his Generals, things would have been different. But it was his way or the highway. We need the Great Recall when this CLOWN SHOW is gone.

Twenty-six generals and admirals in fourteen months. No misconduct cited for a single one. A former Fox News weekend host who never held a senior military command has removed the Joint Chiefs Chairman, the Army Chief of Staff, the commander of Army Transformation and Training, the Chief of Chaplains, and at least 22 other senior officers from the most powerful military on earth. He blocked four Army officers from promotion to brigadier general, two Black men and two women, by unilaterally striking their names from a list of 36. When Army Secretary Dan Driscoll refused to remove them, Hegseth did it himself. No hearing. No review board. No Senate consultation. The names were struck because the man who reads the list decided they should not be on it. The pattern is not random. It is architectural. Every removal serves the same function: shortening the distance between a presidential decision and its execution. The officers who remain are the ones who did not resist. The officers who resisted are gone. The replacement for the Army Chief of Staff is Vice Chief General Christopher LaNeve, who served as Hegseth’s personal military aide. The man who carried the briefcase now signs the orders. The chain of command has been rebuilt so that every link answers directly to the man who removed the previous link. General Randy George was the commander of the United States Army’s ground forces. That title matters now in a way it did not matter six weeks ago. Before February 28, ground forces in Iran were a theoretical exercise discussed in war colleges and think tanks. After five weeks of air strikes, with the IRGC publishing bridge target lists across four allied nations, with the President saying the military has “not even started” destroying what remains, with MEUs staged in the Gulf and the 82nd Airborne deploying and JSOC operators at forward bases in four countries, the ground option is no longer theoretical. It is a logistics package. And the man whose job was to assess whether that package should be opened was told to retire the same day the President posted “much more to follow.” Lieutenant General Hodne ran the command that trains every soldier who would execute a ground operation. Major General Green led the chaplain corps that would minister to every soldier who dies in one. George decided whether the operation should happen. Hodne prepared the soldiers to carry it out. Green prepared them to live with it. All three were removed on the same afternoon. Congress has not held a hearing. No subpoenas issued. The legal authority for a Defence Secretary to unilaterally override promotion lists and force immediate retirement of Senate-confirmed officers during wartime has not been tested because nobody with the authority to question it has chosen to. The IRGC has said attacks will “intensify from next week.” The Ford carrier is heading back. The CNN intelligence assessment confirms half of Iran’s launchers and thousands of drones remain. The President has named the next targets: power plants, desalination, oil wells, Kharg Island. And every general who might have said “this crosses a line” is already gone. Twenty-six officers. Zero misconduct findings. One question that every general still serving is asking behind closed doors: who is left to say no? And what happens when the answer is nobody? open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

@KarlenePetitt been waiting breathlessly for you to tell us how age 65+ pilots would have averted this tragedy and how this association is useless x.com/i/status/20360…

@ronsterd89 The oura ring gives it away

Based on the entirety of this photograph, what is your best estimation of the year it was taken?

@MCCCANM Wouldn't the training be more valuable if they were flying in a (simulated) non-permissice environment?

For context, flyovers & airshow appearances are scheduled through the office of the Secretary of the Air Force (SAF). The event hosts submit a request. The SAF reviews the request & approves or denies it. Probably works similarly for the other branches. That doesn’t mean you get the flyover, though. It just means your event is approved…it’s not some event that would reflect poorly on the service if DoD assets participated. The event gets put on a list. Now, it’s up to individual units to sign up for the event (though in the case of a high profile event like the Super Bowl, the SAF office may get directive). The Units will have local policies on which events they will support & how many each year. Individual pilots may find an event & ask to support it, but it requires the local Commander’s approval. A unit signs up to perform the flyover. The SAF generally rubber stamps these, but could again intervene. In any event, the unit doing the flyover must absorb any costs for the event using their normal “Flying Hour Program”. That’s basically a budget that’s set at the beginning of each year. Managing it is very painful; at the beginning of the year, you have something like, say, 20,000 flying hours. You must use them in a way that keeps your jets & crews trained, and the ideal end is to zero out the budget at the end of the year. So, it doesn’t really cost anything extra to perform these things. You’ve already paid for the personnel & flying hours. There may be some costs for things like hotels & per diem, but that’s a separate budget that already exists, too. Now, the flyover is on, but not a guarantee. These things are settled out months in advance, so sometimes changing circumstances mean the flyover can’t happen. Maybe the Flying Hour Program isn’t running according to plan…if you decide to support a “pop-up” flyover, you’ll probably need to cancel another flyover later in the year. Maybe more jets are down for maintenance than planned, and sending jets to the flyover would drop you below a minimum at home. There’s lots of variables here. The flyover itself is a “Time on Target” exercise. It’s basically a low level training sortie, but instead of doing it at home on your unit’s local low level “tracks” and using the abandoned factory as the target, the target at the end of this low level is a football stadium. The same level of planning will go into it…though, again, for really high-vis events like the Super Bowl, they will probably add some additional coordination. It is slightly unusual to have a formation of dissimilar aircraft. Usually F-35s only fly w/ F-35s, B-1s w/ B-1s, etc., but it’s not unheard of. I joined up w/ a B-1 in Afghanistan & flew with them after being designated as their tanker for as long as they needed me. Fighters fly formation off the tanker as part of air refueling. Sometimes multiple types of fighters at once. So, while it’s not the most common thing, it’s not much beyond what is expected in the real world & wouldn’t take too much practice to put together a dissimilar formation. Teams like the Thunderbirds, Blue Angels & Heritage flights have a slightly different process. Most of their mission is to do outreach to the public. But again, they have a budget each year & must fly it to zero. They have to choose which events – approved by the Secretary – will best meet their mission while also meeting the budget. There are obviously more variables here & I’m simplifying quite a bit, but I hope that adds some additional context. The money is already spent, the flying was already going to happen & the abandoned factory was going to get “bombed” for the 10,000th time…but this Sunday, it’s the Super Bowl. They’ll take care of the factory again next week.